JPH07261620A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To precisely detect the existence of a discharged developer containing means by providing a cover body having a visual recognizing window through which the used discharged developer containing means is visually recognized from the outside. CONSTITUTION:The visual recognizing window 4 through which the inside of a main body 2 is visually recognized is provided on a front cover 3, and it is formed by boring a through hole on the front cover 3 or boring the hole and fitting a transparent body therein. A discharged toner box 7 functioning as the discharged developer containing means containing the used discharged developer, that is, the discharged toner is arranged inside the main body 2, and only the bottom part of the box 7 is usually visually recognized from the window 4. By this image forming device 1, the bottom part of the box 7 is visually recognized through the window 4 of the cover 3 and the existence of the box 7 is precisely detected. Thus, copying operation is prevented from being inadvertently executed without setting the box 7 and the scattering of the discharged toner into a machine body is avoided.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine having a toner discharge box.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional copying machine or the like is provided with a front cover which is totally non-transparent. Therefore, it is not possible to visually check from the outside whether or not there is a waste toner box for storing the waste toner arranged inside the main body. In addition, when the exhausted toner is full, the exhausted toner from the cleaner will not be sent to the exhausted toner box when the amount of toner in the exhausted toner box is full. By operating the detection switch, the detection switch is turned on to detect the full amount of discharged toner, and a message indicating that the discharged toner is full is displayed on the operation panel.

[0003]

As described above, in the conventional copying machine and the like, the presence or absence of the discharged toner box is not detected, and the discharged toner box cannot be visually inspected from the outside. If a copier or the like is operated without being set, there is a problem that the discharged toner is scattered inside the machine body.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of accurately detecting the presence / absence of discharged developer accommodating means and preventing erroneous detection.

[0005]

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus, which is disposed in a main body and stores a discharged developer used for image formation, and a discharged developer storing means. And a cover body having a viewing window through which the storage means can be viewed from the outside.

According to another aspect of the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the discharged developer accommodating means having a full index for accommodating the used discharged developer for image formation and the discharged developer accommodating means in the main body. From the outside, a supporting means for supporting the discharged developer up to the full weight, a bottom portion of the discharged developer accommodating means, and a full index for the discharged developer accommodating means displaced when the support by the supporting means are displaced. And a cover body having a visible window.

An image forming apparatus according to a third aspect of the present invention is a discharge toner box provided with a full index for storing the used discharge toner used for image formation, and the discharge toner box is filled with the discharge toner in the main body. A support container that mechanically or magnetically supports until the weight reaches a certain amount, and a visual window that allows the external view of the bottom of the waste toner box and the full displacement target of the waste toner box that is displaced when the support by the support container is displaced. An image forming apparatus including a front cover provided with the image forming apparatus.

[0008]

According to the image forming apparatus of the first aspect, the discharged developer accommodating means for accommodating the used discharged developer used for image formation can be visually recognized from the outside through the visible window of the cover body. Can accurately detect the presence or absence of discharged developer storage means,
Since the image forming operation without the discharged developer accommodating means is eliminated, it is possible to prevent scattering of the discharged developer discharged inside the machine body.

According to the image forming apparatus of the second aspect, the presence or absence of the discharged developer accommodating means can be accurately detected from the outside through the visual recognition window of the cover body. Further, since the full optotype of the discharged developer accommodating means, which becomes full weight and is displaced when the support by the supporting means is released, can be visually recognized from the outside through the visual recognition window of the cover body, the discharged developer accommodating means is The full amount can be easily known, and the expelled developer accommodating means can be replaced conveniently.

According to the image forming apparatus of the third aspect, it is possible to accurately detect the presence or absence of the bottom of the toner discharge box by visually recognizing it through the viewing window of the front cover. In addition, since the full weight index of the discharged toner box, which becomes full weight and is displaced due to the release of the support by the support container, can be visually recognized from the outside,
It is possible to easily know that the toner is full, and it is possible to facilitate the replacement of the discharged toner box.

[0011]

EXAMPLES Examples of the present invention will be described in detail below.

The image forming apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes a box-shaped main body 2, and a front cover 3 which is a cover body that can be opened and closed with respect to the main body 2 on the front surface of the main body 2.

The front cover 3 is provided with a viewing window 4 through which the inside of the main body 2 can be viewed. The visual recognition window 4 is formed by forming a hole in the front cover 3 or by forming a hole and inserting a transparent body.

On the upper part of the front cover 3, an operation panel 4 and a lid 5 are arranged.

Further, a paper discharge tray 6 is arranged on the side of the main body 2.

Inside the main body 2, as shown in FIG. 2, a used discharged developer used for image formation of the main body 2,
That is, the discharged toner box 7 as the discharged developer storing means for storing the discharged toner is arranged in a state of being supported by the support container 9 as the supporting means which will be described later, and only the bottom portion thereof can be visually recognized through the visual recognition window 4 at all times. It is like this.

The receiving port 7a of the discharged toner box 7 is
It is connected to the outlet of an auger 9 for discharging the discharged toner from a toner cleaner (not shown) so as to store the discharged toner inside.

As shown in FIG. 2, one surface (front surface) of the discharged toner box 7 is provided with a full index (for example, "exhausted toner exchange") 8 indicating the full amount of discharged toner. .

Here, the support structure of the discharged toner box 7 by the support container 9 will be described below.

As this supporting structure, as shown in FIG. 3, a pair of supporting pieces 10 composed of a thin plate piece 10a and an abutting piece 10b are horizontally projected from the opposing inner walls of the supporting container 9 so as to face each other. A structure in which the bottom portion of the discharged toner box 7 is supported by both contact pieces 10b can be mentioned. In this case, when the discharged toner box 7 is filled with the discharged toner, the thin plate piece 10a is broken and the discharged toner box 7 is dropped.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4, a pair of leaf springs 11 are arranged on the inner walls of the supporting container 9 which face each other, and both leaf springs 11 are arranged.
When the ejected toner box 7 is filled with the ejected toner by the protruding portions 11a provided at the free ends of the ejected toner box 7, the protruding portions 11a are pressed toward the inner wall side by the bottom portion of the ejected toner box 7 and the weight of the ejected toner box 7 is reduced. It is also possible to have a structure that drops by.

Further, as shown in FIG. 5, a pair of ring-shaped magnets 12a and 12b, which are in a attracting state, are arranged at the receiving port 7a of the discharging toner box 7 and the discharging port of the auger 9 to discharge the discharging toner box 7. It is also possible to adopt a structure in which the toner discharge box 7 falls by overcoming the attraction force between the annular magnets 12a and 12b with the weight when the toner is full.

According to the image forming apparatus 1 described above, the presence or absence of the bottom portion of the toner discharge box 7 can be visually detected through the visual recognition window 4 of the front cover 3 as shown in FIG. Thus, it is possible to prevent the copying operation from being executed by mistake even when the discharged toner box 7 does not exist, and it is possible to avoid the situation where the discharged toner is scattered into the machine body.

Further, when the discharged toner box 7 becomes full weight with the discharged toner and the support container 9 releases the support, the full target 8 attached to the discharged toner box 7 is also external as shown in FIG. Since it can be visually recognized from above, it can be easily known that the discharged toner box 7 is full, and the replacement of the discharged toner box 7 can be facilitated.

Further, even if there is no indication of the full discharge toner amount on the operation panel 4, it can be visually judged from the outside, so that various mechanisms for displaying the full discharge toner amount can be omitted. .

[0026]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the presence or absence of the discharged developer accommodating means can be accurately detected from the outside through the visual recognition window of the cover body, and the image forming operation without the discharged developer accommodating means. Thus, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus capable of preventing the scattering of the discharged developer discharged in the machine body by eliminating the problem.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the presence or absence of the discharged developer accommodating means can be accurately detected from the outside through the viewing window of the cover body, and the discharged developer accommodating means is full. It is possible to provide an image forming apparatus which can be easily known and which facilitates replacement of the discharged developer accommodating means.

According to the third aspect of the invention, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus in which it is possible to easily know that the toner is full and to replace the discharged toner box.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a mounting structure diagram of an exhaust toner box of an apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a supporting structure of a waste toner box of the apparatus according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a support structure of a waste toner box of the apparatus according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing a support structure of a waste toner box of the apparatus according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a normal visual recognition state of the discharged toner box of the apparatus according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a visually recognizable state when the discharged toner box of the embodiment apparatus of the present invention is full.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 image forming apparatus 2 main body 3 front cover 4 viewing window 7 waste toner box 8 full index 9 support container

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A discharged developer accommodating means disposed inside the main body for accommodating a used discharged developer used for image formation,
An image forming apparatus, comprising: a cover body having a visible window through which the discharged developer accommodating means can be visually recognized from the outside. 2. A discharged developer accommodating means provided with a full amount index for accommodating a used discharged developer used for image formation, and a discharged developer accommodating means in the main body of the discharged developer accumulating weight. A support window for supporting the discharged developer storage means, and a visual window for visually recognizing from outside the full index of the discharged developer storage means that is displaced due to release of the support by the support means and the bottom of the discharged developer storage means. An image forming apparatus comprising: a cover body. 3. A discharged toner box provided with a full index for storing the used discharged toner used for image formation, and the discharged toner box is mechanically operated in the main body until the discharged toner reaches a full weight. Alternatively, a support container that is supported by magnetic force, and a front cover that includes a bottom portion of the waste toner box and a visual window that allows the full visual target of the waste toner box that is displaced due to release from the support container to be visually recognized from the outside are provided. An image forming apparatus characterized by the above.